The Grandparents
|image=The_Grandparents.jpg|260px |airdate=February 11, 2001 |previous=Hal Quits |next=Traffic Ticket }}The Grandparents is the fifteenth of the second season of Malcolm in the Middle, which was broadcast on February 11, 2001. Synopsis Lois' parents Victor (Robert Loggia) and Ida (Cloris Leachman) come for a visit and don't seem to approve of anyone in the family except Reese. Plot Lois' parents come to visit. Her mother, Ida Welker and father, Victor Welker are really cruel and horrible people who are very annoying to everyone in the family, with the exception of Reese, whom they believe the be the only one powerful enough to head toward success. Victor and Ida especially hates Malcolm despite his genius. Unlike Reese, they believe that since Lois was weak all her life, he inherited all her traits. Hal buys a new refrigerator thinking Victor is going to reimburse him for it, but Victor changes his mind. He admits his resentment towards Hal because he made a wrong choice in not marrying Susan over Lois. Meanwhile, Francis is sick from a bad sushi while he and the cadets are in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Victor also gives Reese a case of his old weapons, but Reese pulls the pin and breaks the handle off a live grenade, so Malcolm throws it in the new fridge to keep it from destroying the house, blowing up the fridge in the process. As revenge for this, Hal sits Ida and Victor down and tells them while it is not his place to fix their relationship with Lois, he decides to take a stab at the price for the traumas they have put her through, a total of $3000. Victor and Ida are shocked though Hal calmly explains that this money will cover the fridge, the collateral damage, pay off some credit cards and get his car's transmission fixed. Victor continues to protest and Hal threatens that with one phone call he can get the two of them thrown in prison for child endangerment and acknowledges that since they don't like giving the family money, they will call this $3000 payment blackmail. Ida laughs and claims that this situation is similar to one they experienced with Victor's brother. While not seen onscreen, the two probably pay Hal for the damages in order to not go to jail. Trivia *First appearances of Ida and Victor Welker. **Ida had been mentioned only as "grandma" is numerous previous episodes, but hasn't made an on-screen appearance until now. **This is also the last appearance of Victor, he was mentioned to have passed away in a later episode. *The episode reveals why Victor and Ida favors Reese more than Malcolm. As he is the only strong one in the family, they believe he'll go on to better things. They resent Malcolm despite his genius mainly because of their own resentment to Lois for being weak all her life and thus they believe he has inherited all her weak traits. **This is the opposite in Family Reunion in which the Wilkerson relatives favors Malcolm and treats him very well. They show their resentment to Reese because they believe he is the only thing that is wrong with Hal's family since his marriage to Lois. Category:Episodes Category:Season 2